Communication Leads to Successful Nursing Practice Essay

In this assignment, I will reflect an incident happened during my clinical placement to develop my communication skills not just theoretically but in practical facing real life environment. There is a lot of factors that may influence nursing practice. In this essay, I will discuss the importance of communication in developing nurse-patient relationship. Communication in nursing as stated by Sheldon (2004) was, â€Å"Many definitions describe [communication] as a transfer of information between a source and a receiver. In nursing, communication is a sharing of health-related information between a patient and a nurse, with both participants as sources and receivers. The information may be verbal or nonverbal, written or spoken, personal or impersonal, issue-specific, or even relationship-oriented, to name a few possibilities. â€Å". The aim of this essay is to reflect what had happen during my placement and this gives me opportunity to improve my nursing care plan, which is based on the patient’s initial valuation. David Kolb,1984 said in his book called † Experiental Learning: Experience as a Source Of Learning and Development,(Kolb, 1984)† that reflection is a way in which we examine our experiences and draw lessons from them. QIA Key Skills Support Programme(2007) added that reflection can help to bridge the gap between theory and practice and enable us to look critically at our own behaviour, the behaviour of other people and at the organizational and social context within which we operate. In my context with my event, it is important for me to improve my nurse-patient relationship in terms of communication. In this reflection essay, I am going to use Gibbs (1988) model of reflection. This model is a recognized framework that will help me to reflect what was going on during my 16 days of clinical placement in one of major government hospital. Gibbs model of reflection consist of six stages where the stages link with each other making a continuous cycle to facilitate critical thought, relating theory to practice where this model allow me to see my weaknesses and improvements during my clinical placement. Gibbs’ model of reflection encourages you to think systematically about the phases of an experience or activity, and you should use all the headings to structure your reflection (Oxford Brooks University, 2011). This model of reflection also a good brainstorming of experiences that will end up with solutions to be made and things to be fix and for us to be aware in the future. Jasper M(2003) explains in her book called † Beginning Reflective Practice – Foundations in Nursing and Health Care† that Gibbs model of reflection starts with description of the event which I will discuss in my reflection. The second stage is going to be the analysis of feelings, where I have to tell how I am feeling when that situation happened. Third stage of Gibbs is evaluation of the experience, then comes the fourth stage that is analysis. In this stage I will discuss about the event and from what sense that I can use out of that situation that I am facing in the event. Conclusion and action plan are the last two stages which later on will discuss what else could I have done and what action can I do if the situation arose again along my course in nursing and in future time. Description In this paragraph, I would like to describe what happen during my clinical placement. I was selected to be in the female surgical ward in one of the government major hospital for my first clinical placement. The ward dealing with pre-operative, post-operative patients and orthopedic patients. The ward is divided into four cubicles which each of the two controlled by different unit; operative care unit and orthopedic unit. So, came this morning when me and my colleagues join the qualified nurses do their passing patients report, a family member of a patient name Ms. A approached me and complains that her daughter felt pain at her abdominal area. Ms. A is a 22-year-old young lady who has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, (colorectal cancer occurs when tumors formed in the lining of the large intestine, also called the large bowel – National Cancer Institute,2003) as a result, giving her cramp feeling in the abdominal area, vomiting and change in bowel movements. She is in a nursing special care called palliative care,(palliative care – an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual – WHO 2011) as her cancer was in incurable stage. I, as the student nurse immediately followed my mentor with few qualified nurses as they heard Ms.  A who was screaming continuously as she claims her pain was unbearable. It was my first time seeing or even hearing someone in that much pain, so I stood near her bedside and just look at the qualified nurses assess her after I introduced myself as student nurse. Effective communication is vital, as what have been stated in NursingTimes(2007) † Failure to communicate well with a patient right away will destroy the delicate n urse/patient relationship and mean the patient does not trust the nurse. † Feeling Here, I would discuss the feeling and thinking that I had when I was in the situation. First I introduced myself to Ms. A as I need to build a good rapport with Ms. A so she won’t feel awkward and panicked with my presence with other qualified nurses. Like Crellin. K (1998) said in her 11 Ways To Built Rapport article, â€Å"Taking time to establish a rapport with them can help them cope and improve their willingness in cooperate with the treatment†. I was shocked and stood near her as she can’t stand with her abdominal pain. There is limited skills that I can do to help Ms. A during that time as I am still new in the environment. I were taught to ask Ms. A condition and asisst her to calm down by communicating with her. Evaluation In my evaluation, I feel that I did the right thing to attend Mrs. A and help the qualified nurses dong their task by communicating and be an empathic listener (emphatic listener is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding and trust, Richard. S 2003) and active listener so that she feels safe and know that someone care about her other than her family. As said by Richard Salem(2003), Emphatic listening will build trust and respects and creates safe environment that is conducive to collaborative problem solving. So, these control her emotionally to make her to calm down and get back to her stable condition. The doctor who attend her indirectly taught me how to make Ms. A to calm down, by facing a challenging speaker who was in pain. The key to active listening is relaxed attention – to listen with my whole body by using verbal and non-verbal skill like facing the speaker(patient) and maintaining eye contact with them (University of Maine,1914). Analysis To analyse of what happened, the factors that affect my communication with Ms. A was her unbearable pain. Effective communication and act as a professional were quite difficult as I never had a long conversation with her except for asking permission for assessing her vital signs which were temperature, blood pressure and breathing rate. Active listening also needed in this context as it help the speaker clarify what they are saying and makes them feel heard and it reduces emotions that block clear thinking (University of Miane – 1914), hence it reduces her pain mentally. By listening to her, rephrasing what I heard the patient say as patient won’t be receptive to your response until her thought ,ideas and feeling are communicated and understood(U. M,1914). Conclusion To conclude this, I am sure that communication is the most important skill to have as this will lead me to a successful nursing practice in any situation. Without effective communication, I won’t be able to establish a good rapport with Ms. A and her family. As said by Sheldon, (2004) â€Å"The power of creative and effective nursing care is strengthened by good communication skills. Patients share their stories, symptoms, and concerns by talking with us. Both the spoken word and the body language convey information about the patient’s experience. Your words can do so much: put a patient at ease, set up a productive relationship, and carry out interventions. There is no other skill that is used more in nursing than communication. † and Kacperek (1997)suggested that effective communication is dependent on the nurse’s ability to listen and utilize non-verbal communication skills. Ms. A feels thankful for our presence helping her with er pain by giving painkiller right after her mother called us. Action plan If the same situation arose again, I would like to get myself prepared with any circumstances that might happen, in my case, to communicate with patients in professional way without waiting for emergency situations. Research, asking tips for good rapport and effective communication are ways to solve my communication weaknesses. Without proper communication, it is difficult to understand patient’s need. Therefore, I would like to remind myself that, effective communication is the bridge towards successful and efficient nursing practice. Therefore in nursing practice, it is essential to have the knowledge of interaction, not just practical skills like bed making, vital signs and bed bathing but well prepared with good communication skill to face any situation that we might experience anytime. Without good nurse-patient relationship being built, trust and cooperation between both parties won’t exist. As Lanette L. Anderson (n. d) â€Å"They may not remember our names, but they will remember how we treated them during a difficult time in their lives. â€Å"